Happiness in Helsinki

Last Thursday morning we hopped on yet another plane and flew to Helsinki. I’m beginning to feel a bit like Taylor Swift with all this exotic aviation. One more trip and I will be cancelled, like a true pop icon. Thankfully, my next trip is to Dorset, which requires no planes of any kind, so I might just get away with it.

Tilly went to Helsinki last summer to spend a year at the university of fine art. Prior to Brexit, she could have picked from thousands of places to go. After Brexit she got a letter that said; ‘it’s Helsinki or three places in America. Take your pick.’ As the three places in America were only art adjacent rather than actual art courses, she was left with Helsinki or bust, so she went to Helsinki. As it happens, it turned out to be absolutely perfect for her and she has had a wonderful time.

We were desperate to go out and see her, mainly for Tilly hugs, but also because we had never been to Helsinki and I have always wanted to go on pilgrimage to the birthplace of the Moomins. Due to complicated and horrible reasons, we were unable to go last year, and timings were such that it looked like we might not get there this year, but with a bit of jiggery pokery, we managed it.

Of all the places I’ve been recently, Helsinki was by far my favourite and my best. This appreciation was coloured largely by the fact that I got to spend four days squeezing one of my very best beloveds in the whole, entire world and also because we arrived at the beginning of a run of absolutely glorious weather. Also, we were in funds, which meant we could afford to do lots of things. I am not entirely sure how much love for it I’d have in February, up knees in snow and with no money.

We were only there for four days, but we packed in a great deal and I thoroughly enjoyed everything we did and most importantly, everything we ate. Here’s a run down of tips and recommendations.

Public transport is super cheap and incredibly efficient. You can download an app and prepay for the days you want to travel. For four days in and around Helsinki, using buses, trains, trams, ferries and subways, we paid about £25 each. There are multiple ways to get around and everything runs frequently and on time. All the notices and announcements for the transport system are in Finnish, Swedish and English and everyone speaks English, so it’s extremely easy to get around.

Nearly every museum and gallery, and even some churches we went into cost money to get in. Not insignificant amounts either. The design museum cost £20 (although this also covers the architecture museum entrance). A guided tour round the architect Alvar Aalto’s house cost £25 each. That used to cover his house and his studio. Now you have to pay another £15 each if you want to visit the studio. The HAM art gallery was £18 and even the church in the rock was £8 to visit. I used to work at the V&A and without government funding, I know museums and galleries are expensive to run and maintain, but it was a lot. If you’re going on a budget, you’ll need to be ruthless about what you can live without seeing.

My advice if you’re on a budget - most churches are free to get into and there’s a lot of interesting architecture and art in them if you need a culture fix. Don’t do what we did and gatecrash a funeral, because that’s frowned upon, but otherwise, go for it. We also narrowly avoided gate crashing two weddings on different days. We arrived at quite a ceremonial time of year. Apart from Temppeliaukio church, which charged an entrance fee and was obviously the best one we went to, my favourites were the Russian Orthodox, Uspenski Cathedral down by the harbour and the Kamppi Chapel in the city centre.

Walk around and spend time looking up. There’s good architecture up there. Finns have a particular fondness for caryatids old and new. There’s also lots of public art and sculpture littered around. You can see giant, metal strawberry plants, ceilings filled with street signs shooting off in every direction and giant, green children for a start.

Graveyards are excellent places to visit and they’re also free. We went to Hietaniemi cemetery and it was fantastic. Tove Jansson is buried there along with many of the great and good of Finnish life. It’s huge and there are four other cemeteries nearby that we didn’t have time to visit. It’s right by a lovely beach, so if you’ve had enough of sculpture and nature, you can have a quick paddle before you come home. I was particularly taken with the Finnish tradition of placing tiny, bird sculptures on the top of gravestones and have a collection of very wonky photographs of them to prove it.

There’s loads of beautiful parks, beaches and even forests within easy reach if nature is your jam. If you want to sauna, Sompasauna is a collectively owned, free to use sauna. I was too knackered to go on the night that Tilly went, but it sounds amazing and she uses it all the time. If you book an airbnb, most buildings have access to their own sauna. You just need to book it with your host.

Food wise, things were about on a par with London prices and not as outrageous as American prices. Tilly is vegetarian and Jason is fussy, so we didn’t do much fine dining, but all the places we ate were good, even what we foraged from the food hall at Tripla mall, which we were staying nearby. We also visited a couple of supermarkets, because a) we love a foreign supermarket and b) we wanted breakfast food and picnic supplies and they were a smidge more expensive than here, but not upsettingly so. The Prisma supermarket in Tripla Mall is open 24/7, which is very pleasing. You can get decent coffee everywhere and magnificent buns are freely available. I was very happy. Alcohol is not cheap, but as I rarely drink, paying a tenner for one, delicious cocktail, which is on a par with what I’d pay in London, didn’t make me cry.

If you wince at the prices of the Design Museum but want to see Finnish design, you won’t have to look far. The shops are mostly like galleries anyway. Jason upset a Ukrainian upholsterer when he shrieked about the price of her chairs, thus affording him a lecture on Finnish design, which was quite amusing. Marimekko have boutiques everywhere as do Arabia and Iitalla. There are also Moomin shops all over the place. I also spent a calming hour in the largest Muji store I’ve ever been in, stroking all the things and admiring their organisational efficiency.

A top tip if you want to buy rather than browse is to search out some of Helsinki’s many, glorious charity shops. I particularly liked the Uff shops, which are everywhere. I bought Marimekko tops for a fraction of the price they are new. Tilly bought a set of Moomin bedsheets for £4 and there is everything you could ever possibly want for yourself and your home for extremely reasonable prices. Some of the charity shops have rooms where everything is free and you can take what you want. I got a couple of fantastic pieces of fabric for my next textile project that way.

My favourite things, other than seeing my lovely Tilly, were:

The central library is a five minute walk from the railway station and it is a thing of wonder and a joy forever. It’s not like any other library I’ve ever been in. It’s a proper, communal space. Not only can you borrow books, which are ferried around by tiny, robots, you can also use sewing machines and 3D printers. They have all kinds of cool kit you can borrow, including vinyl cutters, huge laser printers and various other tools. There is a recording studio and rooms where you can play Mario Kart and Minecraft. There are meeting rooms and study spaces. There are art exhibits and award winning chairs to sit in that Jason would explode if he knew the price of them. The building itself is stunning and everything in it is useful and being used. It was pretty utopian.

Gathering Tove Jansson lore. We visited the plaque that marks where her studio and flat were, her grave and several other Tove adjacent spaces. I saw her artworks for Helsinki children’s hospital and her murals for her friend Vivica at the HAM gallery (which is named after her mother). I did a lot of worshipping.

There is a toy museum on the island of Suomenlina which was worth every penny of the eight quid it cost to get in. Suomenlina was turned into a barracks and fortress by the Swedes when they invaded Finland. You can now reach it by ferry, which runs every fifteen minutes from the harbour and is included in your travel pass, should you buy one. Now it is home to a small, bohemian community, a bunch of strange museums, a submarine, lots of cafes and restaurants and a summer theatre. The toy museum is strange, brilliant and bizarre, both for the range of toys and the way they have been arranged in the museum itself. It’s not very big, but Tilly and I spent a happy hour in there, laughing and taking photos and coveting everything. If you find dolls creepy and upsetting, don’t go. Otherwise, fill your boots.

We did so many things, but there were so many things left undone. Helsinki is a place I would go back to in a heartbeat. My friend Kaz messaged me while I was there. She said: ‘I think you’ve found your people.’ She’s right.